1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal for use in an electrical socket, and particularly to such a terminal which not only has a good desired performance but also can be easily assembled to the electrical socket.
2. Description of Prior Art
With the miniature trend in computer technology, electrical sockets each of which mainly comprises an insulating housing and a plurality of terminals are becoming smaller and smaller. Due to their small size, the terminals, especially mating beams of the terminals are easily to be damaged because of overlarge stress produced therein when the terminals engage with pins of a complementary electronic package, such as a central processing unit (CPU). Several methods are proposed to solve this problem. One of them, for example as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,860,838, and 6,227,869, is to modify the structure of the terminals so as to obtain optimal electrical and mechanical performance of the mating beams of the terminals. Another method is to modify the arrangement of the terminals with respect to a base of an insulating housing of the sockets, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,750,891, and 5,518,426. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,891, a base plate of an electrical socket defines an array of terminal holes arranged in a lattice-like shape for receiving corresponding terminals therein and the respective rows of the terminal holes are inclined at same angles, preferably 45 degrees, with respect to the respective sides of the base. In this way, not only miniaturization of the pith of adjacent terminals is advanced, but also intended performance of the terminal is obtained. However, the terminals can not be fitted into the lattice-shaped terminal holes of the base plate simultaneously, due to the limitation of existing manufacturing technology for the terminals, thereby complicating the assembly of the terminals. Furthermore, in forming the terminal holes oriented in 45 degrees, core pins of the molding mold should also be oriented in 45 degrees. This introduces a lot of complication in forming the molding mold. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,614 defines some approach to use a 45 degrees contact in a connector for surface mount to a printed circuit board.
Hence, an improved terminal for use in an electrical socket is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a conductive terminal for use in an electrical socket, wherein the terminal has good intended performance and can be easily assembled in the socket.
To fulfill the above-mentioned object, a conductive terminal for use in an electrical socket in accordance with the present invention comprises a retaining body retained to a base of an insulating housing of the electrical socket, a soldering portion and a resilient arm both extending from the retaining body. The retaining body is parallel to one lateral side of the base during insertion into the base. The soldering portion extends horizontally from a bottom end of the retaining body for soldering to a printed circuit board. The resilient arm has a body portion connected to one side of the retaining body and a curved beam for conductively contacting with a conductive point of an electronic package. An angle is defined between the retaining body and the body portion of the resilient arm. The angle is an obtuse angle so that the curved beam extends substantially in a diagonal direction of a corresponding terminal hole receiving the terminal, whereby the curved beam can obtain an extended length.